You are probably due an email any day now to let you know that Adobe is upgrading Acrobat with a 2011 edition. It is always wise to upgrade as soon as possible as some upgrades close security exploits than hackers and viruses take advantage of. But wait ….. If Adobe are upgrading Acrobat, why are they not using adobe.com? And why is it coming direct from Tom Norman? And why is it that if you Google “new-2011-pdf-download.net” there are loads of phishing warnings? Why is the copyright status on the website quoted as “Copyright new-2011-pdf-download.net © 2010 – All rights reserved”? It all looks very Phishy indeed! Here is the email that I just got, and wiothout my glasses on (just finished a quick, intensive workout) I almost fell for it myself! Phishing Scam Alert! "Dear Customers, Adobe is pleased to announce new version upgrades for Adobe Acrobat 2011. http://www.new-adobe-2011.com Advanced features include: - Collaborate across borders - Create rich, polished PDF files from any application that prints - Ensure visual fidelity - Encrypt and share PDF files more securely - Use the standard for document archival and exchange To upgrade and enhance your work productivity today, go to: http://www.new-adobe-2011.com [...]

Quick warning – just read about a new phishing scam that targets Amazon customers. This one is a be advanced than the usual, designed in trick more people into handing over their private data to the scammers. In this new Amazon scam you will receive an email which will look genuine. The email address will look a bit like an Amazon one, with a quick glance, and the email design and layout looks a lot like Amazon emails, with the Amazon logo included. There are various different emails, the most  common one is the “Your credit card has been declined”. The basic scam designed to encourage you to input your correct details. What makes this scam more advanced is that the page that you are directed to looks so much like the real Amazon site. You are asked to input your login details and then update your credit card details. Christmas is Season of Good Scamming The phishing scam is on the increase at this time of year as the criminals rely on the fact that you possibly have recently placed an order on Amazon. So many people will buy at least one present on Amazon that by bombarding millions [...]

There used to be a time when if a woman wanted to con a man out of a lot of money she would have to befriend him, woo him, marry him then run off with the cash. These days it can happen in a virtual environment without anyone ever meeting personally. Not only that, it may not be a woman at all! The Online Dating Scam So how do these scams work? Like any con, it is about developing an false emotional attachment and feeling of attachment between the con artist and the victim. Every day more people sign up to online dating agencies. Many specialise in helping people to meet a partner from overseas. The con artist will approach their victim and spend several months developing a relationship, slowly becoming more intimate. They are often skilled in determining when their victim may have fallen in love with them. Once they have determined that you are hooked, they will then start talk about meeting up, always that they will come to visit your country. As they are not working and short of money, they will need money for flights, so you naturally send them money to cover the costs of booking flights [...]

Had another call today from a firm telling me that my computer was generating errors caused by malware, which was caused because my security warranty was out of date. I had a similar call the other day, and knowing it to be a scam I got rid of them pretty quickly. Today I decided to find out what exactly they are doing, so I played dumb, sounded very concerned at all times, and went along with the whole process while taking notes, just so I could raise awareness here. Many Companies Doing This Scam ******** Update 26 November 2010 - an interjection. Sorry, I should edit this better….. ******** Just want to interject here, as I have had another call today from a company doing the same scam, i.e. telling me my computer is sending them errors. This time I said that it was OK and that my computer was working fine, thanks. They asked if I have an antivirus, and I said that I did. They then said that the antivirus was not able to detect this type of error. The new company is called 360 E Tech Support. I asked for their website details and they reluctantly gave them [...]

Barry Welford, one of the Cre8easiteforums moderators, has just alerted us to the follow phishing scam that is targeting Google Account holders. I have now twice within the last few days had a very authentic-looking Gmail message from Google that in fact is a phishing exploit. If you click on the www.google.com link you end up on the nautilusdiving.com domain but with a very authentic Gmail Welcome page that encourages you to enter your username and password. More details are here: http://www.otherbb.com/2009/07/latest-gmail-phishing-very-tough-to-spot-watch-out.html Don’t be taken in. Things to remember when receiving an email from ANYONE asking for account information: Does the company state in their terms that they will contact you by email? Many banks will not contact you by email. Double check the domain name that the link in the email leads to. It is very easy to trick someone into following a link. Here is an example: Use http://www.google.com for the best search experience! Who spotted out trick BEFORE clicking? If in any doubt, ignore the email, and go to the website in your usual favoured manner, and log in to your account. If there really is a change you need to approve etc. then this should be [...]